Leading cities of today

Identifying the best sites is still a relatively complex task. However, help is available: the management consulting firm A.T. Kearney has issued its 2018 Global Cities Report, in which 27 metrics were used across five dimensions (the figure in brackets shows the weight given to each):

• Business activity: flow of capital, presence of major companies (30%)
• Human capital: education levels (30%)
• Information exchange: access to information (the Internet and other media) (15%)
• Cultural experience: major sporting events, museums, etc. (15%)
• Political engagement: political events, think tanks, etc. (10%)

There is no ideal city

New York remains the world’s most influential city. In reality, however, there is no "perfect" city which would score 100 across all 27 metrics. For example, New York is top in only five of the metrics; Brussels comes top in four metrics. New York ranks first in both business activity and human capital, while Paris is first in information exchange, London in cultural experience and Washington, D.C. in political engagement.

The top 15 cities in the current Global Cities Index are:

1. New York
2. London
3. Paris
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong
6. Los Angeles
7. Singapore
8. Chicago
9. Beijing
10. Brussels
11. Washington, D.C.
12. Seoul
13. Madrid
14. Moscow
15. Sydney

Future potential of metropolitan areas

The ranking of cities in terms of future potential for attracting businesses is based on 13 metrics across four dimensions:

• Well-being: healthcare, safety, environment (25%)
• Economics: long-term investments and GDP (25%)
• Innovation: patents, private investments (25%)
• Governance: transparency, quality of administration, ease of doing business (25%)

This index is more forward-looking. So what are the expected leading business hubs of the near future?

1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. London
4. Paris
5. Singapore
6. Amsterdam
7. Munich
8. Boston
9. Houston
10. Melbourne
11. Stockholm
12. Toronto
13. Zurich
14. Tokyo
15. Chicago

It is evident that there is significant competition from emerging cities, according to an article on the cfo.com website.

San Francisco is strong in innovation. Major cities in China have made huge progress and are climbing in the rankings.

-jk-